Elsewhere

Day: July 27, 2010

“It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later”
– Alfred Holt, 1877 (Murphy’s Law)

The Deep Water Horizon disaster is undoubtably a catastrophic occurance. At the risk of sounding unpopular, it is also possibly a great opportunity. The first blowout of somewhere around 50,000 American offshore wells should force people – and governments – to have a long hard look at their priorities and energy usage.

For all of the bluster and ill-feeling directed toward BP, the USA has to face up to it’s massive reliance on oil. The upper estimate on the scale of the spill is 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The demand for oil in the USA in 2009 was just under 13,000 barrels of oil. Per minute. All that oil has to come from somewhere and attempting to reduce imports leaves only one option available.